HA NOI (VNS) — A local non-government organisation held a workshop today in Ha Noi for journalists from different city agencies on the limited social security access that migrant workers get.

Earlier, on Friday and Saturday, the Institute for Community and Health Development or LIGHT, a civil society group based in Ha Noi, organised field trips for 30 journalists from television, print and online media to interview street food vendors and waste pickers (scavengers) in the city.

At the workshop, the reporters submitted their fact-finding reports, which showed that the migrant workers, mostly from rural areas, had low demands regarding different social services: 48.1 per cent of the respondents wanted to join a programme on voluntary payments of social insurance premiums; 25.2 per cent wanted to participate in a health insurance programme; 55.2 per cent want access to healthcare services; and 40.5 per cent wanted to get legal and policy consultation.

Though their demands for these services are low, they get even lower levels of access to them. For example, only 11.9 per cent of the interviewed persons said they had engaged in a programme on voluntary payments of social insurance premiums (as compared to 48.1 per cent of those who wanted the service) and only 22.4 per cent had access to healthcare services (as against 55.2 per cent who wanted access).

Nguyen Thu Giang, vice-director of LIGHT, told the workshop's participants that the reporters' findings would be used as inputs for the recommendations LIGHT would make to the concerned agencies that were drafting a law on voluntary payments of social insurance premiums and health insurance for migrant workers.

A survey conducted by the National Statistical Office says 7.7 per cent of the nation's population comprises migrant workers, with 94 per cent of them migrating from rural to urban areas.

Migrant workers are often found to have low incomes and little access to social security.